here we go again, Main Post.
Game #1 - World of Warcraft Shadowlands
Time: Ongoing
Platform: PC
Rating: ★★★★★
Starting the year (and the list) with the game I ended my 2020 one with, might aswell put it on the list now since I am still completely engaged with it, even after 3 months of playing (a rarity with wow expansions for me). So much so I bumped up the score from last year as I firmly believe this is up there with Legion and MoP as the best expansions in the game, and not even the lack of a new class is bothering me anymore. Really hoping me and my posse stick around for the second raid tier this time around.
Game #2 - Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order
Time: 20 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★★
What a delight this was, easily one of the best Star Wars games I've ever played, and one of my favorite games in the last few years. Fantastic action adventure with a mix of Uncharted (and Prince of Persia!) style traversal with Dark Souls combat and mechanics (enemies respawn when you rest and you have "estus flasks" for example), with a super meaty campaign spanning various gorgeous and intricate locales, great set pieces, great characters and a cool story, just overall one of those complete packages that just makes you hope for a sequel. Absolutely recommended.
Game #3 - Halo 3 ODST
Time: 7 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★
A little torn on this one, as overall I did enjoy it, but the first half of the campaign wasnt doing much for me and the semi-open world hub thing they introduced ended up being more of a momentum/pace killer than anything. Still, I like the visuals (lot's of neon!), and the story and action pick up when the squad get together in the second half, and thankfully it never had any hair pulling frustrating sections like Halo 2, but at the same time, its a bit derivative and feels a little too "normal" with the City setting and the Call of Duty-esque marine squad, which is not what I come to Halo for. Still worth playing tho.
Game #4 - Little Nightmares
Time: 4 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
This is a fantastic little horror game (no pun intended) that while not having the best gameplay, everything around it is so well made it elevates it past the point where the average gameplay would leave it at. The visuals are just flat out gorgeous, to the point where it looks like some sort of animated film, not in a super high poly Pixar way but more like those stop motion or lower budget CGI movis, something like Caroline. Lot's of cool depth of field tricks, some truly nightmare inducing monsters, and great looking environments really make the whole things a trip. It's good too because the actual gameplay is just average, and since there's qutie a bit of stealth involved, it falls into the "repeat section until you get it right" trap that many stealth games do. But it's short enough and like I said the athmosphere alone makes it worth playing. Oh and the music is fantastic.
Game #5 - Halo 4
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
Hot take time because I absolutely loved Halo 4 even tho I hear the internet hates it. Right off the bat, I still have a hard time believing this was a 360 game, because if you told me this was a next-gen Halo game (as in, next gen after 360) I would just go "yeah that checks out". It looks amazing even today (the upres and framerate on the Series X / PC helps of course), I love the weapons as they feel and sound fantastic, plus there's a bunch of enw ones, I like the enemies, I loved the levels, just overall it was a blast and probably my favorite Halo so far along with 3 (and thankfully it doesnt have all the sound mixing bugs the previous games had). The story is nonsense and making Cortana an actual waifu is super weird, but I never much cared for the story in these games so for me it doesn't detract from it. It certainly got me super excited to finish out the series with 5 next.
Game #6 - Halo 5 Guardians
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
Another fantastic 343 Industries Halo game... at least when it comes to gameplay and presentation, so let's start there. Much like Halo 4, but now with the added horsepower of the last gen behind it, the game is just gorgeous, with much bigger open space levels now (something Halo 4 suffered from) and a LOT more characters on screen, both enemies and your new permanent 4 man squad. Gameplay is probably the best in the series, as it improves on Halo 4 with new movies, even better weapons and better battles. Unfortunately the story is a bunch of cliche nonsense picking up from 4's "Cortana is going crazy!" thread and dialing it up to 11. At least it's different from the original trilogy I guess. Overall I loved it for it's gameplay and presentation, but the story is pretty bad. It's also a unexpected MGS2 situation where you don't actually play Master Chief much at all, which I don't mind but I imagine most fans didn't apreciate lol.
Game #7 - Sea of Solitude
Time: 4 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★
Always hard to rate these types of games, as it feels weird to "rate" something that is clearly very personal and touches on hard subjects like depression and bullying (the developer has said the game is partically based on a past abusive relationship but also a lot of it is fictionional), but thankfully the actual game itself is quite good I think. The visuals are gorgeous, using a very Wind Waker-esque art style with some truly fantastic monster and world designs, but the gameplay is serviceable at best. It does the job and the game has a lot more gameplay going for it than most of these type of games which tend to be more walking sims, but it's still nothing remarkable. But, it's a very touching (if hard to play since again, it touches on a lot of subects that hit a little too close to home for me) and a good metaphor for mental health, so for that and the visuals alone, it's very worth playing, as long as you can handle the themes.
Game #8 - Bloodstained Ritual of the Night
Time:16 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★
Finally got around to play this, took me long enough for being such a metroidvania fanboy, and it's pretty fucking fantastic as one would expect from Igarashi himself, but unfortunately the Switch version is still pretty shoddy even after numerous patches so I can't go the 5/5 on it, at least not the version I played. Game wise it's just a super solid throwback to Symphony of the Night, with a TON of weapons and spells to collect, a gigantic map and really good gameplay (if a little outdated in my opinion, it feels a bit stiff). Like I said, the Switch version is... ok, it's certainly playable but the graphical fidelity takes a HUGE hit, so unless you really want to play it portable (like I did, at work), just play a "proper" version because the game itself is one of the best of the genre.
Game #9 - Panzer Dragoon Remake
Time: 1 hour
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★
One of those cases where the past should stay in the past, as any fond memories I might had of this one time classic are pretty much shattered by replaying it in 2021. Incredibly short and the on-rails shooting gameplay has not aged well at all, it's at least pretty most of the time (at least playing portable on Switch, not so much on a TV) and the music is still fantastic, but this is something you should only get with a deep discount in my opinion, if just to get that one hour of nostalgia out of the way.
Game #10 - Vigil The Longest Night
Time: 16 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★
Finally got around to finish this after restarting it recently with the latest update, as unfortunately when I got it last year the game was in a horrible state on the Switch and I dropped it. But going back to it and finally finishing it now that it's for the most part fixed, this is one of the best metroidvanias that came out recently, with a fantastic (and immense) world, tons of spells and weapons to get, various skill tress for different playstyles, an awesome gothic-eldricht look, just pretty much all you want from one of these "2d Souls" games. Much like Bloodstained I can't go 5 stars because I played the Switch version which even tho it was patched a lot which is good, it's still certainly not perfect and the frame rate still goes wonky at times, but the game itself is a must play for fans of the genre.
Game #11 - Far Lone Sails
Time: 3 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★★
This was an absolute gem, one of my favorite indie games (hell, games in general) in awhile, this serene 2d adventure has you conduct a steampunk-y land ship through some sort of post-apocalypse minus all the monsters and, well, anything really, it's just you, your ship and the open land. The game is very simple, as it boils down to simple tasks you can perform on the ship (fuel it, put out fires, occasional repairs, pick up trash to fuel your engine, etc) and solving ocasional puzzles outside the ship as you encounter roadblocks, but it's so well executed, and coupled with the gorgeous graphics (love the monochromatic with a splash of color here and there look) and chill soundtrack, all make up for a truly special experience. It's a shorty but very well worth going through, highly recommended.
Game #12 - Warhammer Chaosbane
Time: 11+ hours
Platform: PC
Rating: ★★★
Was torn on giving this 3 or 4, but at the end of the day, even tho I ended up enoying it quite a bit, it doesn't really do anything particularly new or exciting. The story mode (which you need to do to unlock all the endgame systems) was enjoyable enough, taking me about 11 hours to finish on very hard (there are harder difficulties to unlock later on). The classes don't really come into their own until a few hours in and you unlock some skills and especially the "god skills" tree, but once they do I found my summoner elf did what I wanted the class to do. It looks quite good, with great environments and monsters, but the maps do repeat themselves A LOT which is a shame. There are quite a few end game systems, from a boss mode, to the standard instanced random zones with affixes and a tower you can climb for better and better loot, so it seems competent on that end aswell. That's really the story of the game I guess, it's a well made, competent action rpg, a lot more on the casual side than soemthing like POE, but if you are itching for another one of those, you can probably get quite a bit of fun out of it, if only for the story mode.
Game #13 - Warhammer Chaosbane: tomb Kings
Time: 2 hours
Platform: PC
Rating: ★
Between the super short length and the fact its 10€ (or part of the season pass, which itself already annoyed me for having a skill tree as dlc...yeah this game's DLC is wack and one of the reasons I went 3 stars instead of 4 earlier), the repetitive fetch quests and uninstering new skills it adds (which you will most likely never use since skill points are limited and it's already hard to work out builds around), this dlc really feels like it should have been a free update (in fact this dlc is called chapter 5, and later the game DID get a free chapter 6 update!). Only for completionists.
Game #14 - Pinstripe
Time: 3 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★
Really enjoyed this one, one of those rare gems that goes everything it sets out to do perfectly, doesn't overstay it's welcome and is a joy to play and go through. Essencially a 2D platform puzzle game, with a splash of action here and there (you have a slingshot you mostly use for puzzles but also for somelight combat), it has a simple but very effective story of a father trying to save his daughter from the titular Pinstripe, and with a very welcome 3 hour runtime, it keeps you engaged with a few different puzzle types and a host of cool (and very well voice acted) characters.It also looks absolutely gorgeous with a 2D artstyle reminiscent of Nightmare Before Christmas or Coroline (in fact the game itself is very "children's horror" like those movies) and has a fantastic soundtrack. Like I said, it does everything well and is very easy to recommend for fans of the genre.
Game #15 - Loop Hero
Time: 30+ hours
Platform: PC
Rating: ★★★★
A little bittersweet on this one, as I absolutely loved it for 90% of my time with it, but the last chapter / endgame part really soured me and turned the game into something that wasn't what I had enjoyed for the previous 30 or so hours. Still, it's a fantastic roguelike, a sort of dungeons & dragons simulator mixed with idle clicker mixed with town management, it's alot but it all works in this super addictive mesh that is super strong on the "just one more go" factor. The art is a bit ugly but actually works for what it's doing and the soundtrack is fantastic. It's a bit repetitive as most roguelikes are, and it gets very grindy near the end, and like I said near the end the gameplay pivots to something I didn't enjoy (I don't want to spoil it) but in the end, it's cheap and I got a ton of value out of it, and loved most of it, so I would still easily recommend it.
Game #16 - Call of the Sea
Time: 6 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★
This was a really cool puzzle adventure that once again seems like a perfect fit for Gamepass (where I played it), as otherwise I probably wouldn't have tried it, and I guess would have been worse of because of it. The story is pretty cool and the visuals are gorgeous, but some of the puzzles were real head-scratchers that had me reach for a guide as I don't really have much patience for puzzles these days, even if overall I don't think it's that hard. It's also not very long so it's easy to recommend, even if it doesn't do anything particularly amazing, it's still worth experiencing, especially if you like puzzle games.
Game #17 - Haven
Time: 14 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★★
Wonderful surprise as I wasn't really sure what to expect of this and it ended up being one of my favorite games in a long time. An action rpg with some truly unique gameplay, both in traversal and combat, with gorgeous visuals and really strong writing, telling a simple tale of a young couple trying to escape their Romeo & Juliet style matchmaking society, it's not often you see a videogame focused solely on a couple's relationship, but both protagonists are super cute (and super horny lol) and the writing is really good, it all feels like a joy to play and experience. I wish there was a bit more variety in the locations you explore, but that's not enough to sour me on the game, and I loved it from begining to end.
Game #18 - Limbo
Time: 4 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★★
A modern day classic that spawned a horde of clones ever since it came out back in 2010, and even 10 years later, it totally holds up, having a perfect mix of amazing athmosphere, gorgeous graphics, amazing sound design and fantastic puzzles. It looks particularly good on the Switch's screen as many 2D games do, and I just had a blast with it just like I had back when I first played it. HIghly recommended both for first timers or just to replay in 2021.
Game #19 - Outriders
Time: 30+ hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
Another good game marred by being always online and having a bad launch, it really is a trend these days huh? Anyway, Outriders is a very solid, very fun third person "looter shooter", especially if you play co-op. Great skill system, ton of gear and weapons to collect, it basically checks all the boxes you would want from the genre. It's also VERY janky, feels a bit "loose" to play, it looks good but not amazing, basically a B-Tier game, but I say that with the best intention. I did everything up to endgame where the game unfortunately kinda lost me since the endgame systems don't line up with how I like to play it, but I had a blast finishing it and, hey... its on gamepass (xbox only unfortunately), which honestly makes me more forgiving of its flaws and especially of its launch issues. I would say it's 4/5 on Gamepass, 3/5 for 60€ >_>
Game #20 - Monster Hunter Rise
Time: Ongoing
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★★
Still going strong with this one, and as long as Capcom keeps pumping out the monthly updates, I'll keep going back. A natural progression from World, keeping all of it's quality of life changes and introducing the wirebug mehcanic, which gives unprecedented movement options (to the point its actually hard to go back to previous games), Rise is a full fledged sequel on a much weaker hardward (until the PC version that is), but somehow still having gorgeous visuals, fantastic gameplay and a ton of monsters to hunt (and more added all the time). Kudos for "transmog" or layered armors being added much sooner this time around too.
Game #21 - Resident Evil 8
Time: 11 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★★
Fantastic sequel (direct sequel at that) to RE7, picking up Ethan's story years later and ramping up the craziness to 11. The first person gameplay still works shockingly well, it's a bigger game than 7, both in size and scope, and the story really goes crazy (in a good way in my opinion), making this one a easy winner in the franchise, with an ending that introduces some real "break from the past" scenarios for future games (except of course when they just remake old ones for nostalgia *cough*RE4*cought*). Perfect length, perfect pacing, great locations, fantastic cast of weirdos and the usual RE puzzles and action you expect, I love this and can't wait to see what they do next.
Game #22 - The Medium
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
Bloober is back with another horror game, this time a third person adventure very inspired by more old school fixed camera games like Silent Hill or the first few Resident Evils. It's big gimmick, that you play in two realities at the same time (thus making it impossible for older consoles to handle it), ended up being just that, a gimmick, but it still has some cool puzzles around that, especially when it just becomes a normal game where you interact with both realities seperately and solve puzzles in one that affect the other. Visuals are gorgeous at times (and quite past-gen at other times) and I liked the story, even tho it doesnt necesarily land every dramatic beat, I like how hard Bloober goes in their narratives, so I respect it. I really liked it but can just as easily see people not enjoy the old school camera and lack of action.
Game #23 - Blair Witch
Time: 5 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★
Another Bloober joint, this is another cool horror game by the studio, although it never fulfills on all it's promises. One thing I do like about Bloober games is that they always have a different feel to them, with unique mechanics, and this one is no different rellying heavily on a dog (who is a very good boy) who accompanies you on your mind fucky journey and you can command. Unfortunately they never do much with this system, and at just around 4-5 hours long, it ends being a very lienar horror experience, but it does some great psychological stuff during it, and tells a cool story (as usual, Bloober goes hard on the themes they choose, for better or worse). I think it's better than Layers of Fear but I prefer The Medium overall (I haven't played Observer).
Game #24 - Mass Effect (Legendary Edition)
Time: 31 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
Still an absolute classic and the remaster is great, but there is a lot of small things that really didn't age well (or were ever good to begin with) that doesn't let me go the full monty. The obvious one off the bat, the Mako still sucks, everything about how it handles and the barren planets you visit, is just a missed opportunity and it's no wonder the scrapped it in later games. The shooting doesn't feel particularly great (especially compared to later games), but the story, writing, voice acting and main quests are all still fantastic, and I still had a blast going through it. Oh and the DLC isn't very good either, I only mention it because the next games have fantastic dlc.
Game #25 - Mass Effect 2 (Legendary Edition)
Time: 50 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★★
Now that I've finally played the third game, I still maintain 2 is my favorite in the series. A fantastic sequel that improves on everything from the first game, the gameplay is much better, it looks fantastic (2 and 3 really look good in this remaster), and I love the "team assembly for a suicide mission" plot (I know many hate it tho lol). Lair of the Shadow Broker is a great DLC also.
Game #26 - Mass Effect 3 (Legendary Edition)
Time: 45 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★★
First time I've played this one, and the first few hours actually annoyed me with some new systems they introduce (like the stupid reaper hunters in space), but eventually it finds it's footing, and I ended up loving it. Probably the best playing of the three, certainly the best looking, I didn't like the story as much as the second one, but it still has some great quests, wraps up the trilogy in a nice way, and pretty much all of it's DLC is the same caliber as Lair of the Shadow Broker so overall it's a great package.
Game #27 - The Wild at Heart
Time: 12 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
This was a wonderful pikmin clone (don't see many of those) that pretty much nails everything it's going for, from the delightful 2d art style, the cool puzzle gameplay involving your little "pikmin army", a wholesome story and cast, just a very well made, and very delightful game that is a joy to go through. The day and night cycle might get a little annoying for some but it didn't really bother me, and it's not very long thus never overstays it's welcome. Easy recomendation if you to scratch that pikmin itch, especially since it's on gamepass.
Game #28 - Monster Train
Time: Ongoing
Platform: PC
Rating: ★★★★★
Hadn't played this in some months after it being my GOTY last year, and by golly it has gotten some fantastic updates. Basically every deck has a new champion now, with both new cards and of course a new gimick per champion, and most of the cards got reworked or buffed, making the whole thing feel like a whole new game almost. It's still my favorite deckbuilding roguelike (sorry Slay the Spire), and now that I'm back into it again, I really need to get the DLC for the new champion.
Game #29 - Spiritfarer
Time: 25 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
Gamepass continues to deliver on the indie front, with another great game in Spiritfarer, a 2d platformer / sim game with amazing art style and a whole lot of heart. You play as Stella, and your job is to ferry various animal souls to the afterlife, and you do this by building up your boat with various houses and crops for them to live their last few days happily. It's really a genious idea, and it has everything you'd expect from a sim, from farming to fishing, mining and exploration, and relationships. This last one actually touches on some pretty heavy themes (surprisingly given the cartoony look of the game), and overall I just loved going through it, especially when it's a genre I usually apreciate from a distance but don't really get engaged with.
Game #30 - Psychonauts
Time: 12 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
Finally got around to play this in anticipation for the sequel and I wasn't dissapointed, it really is a great game and worthy of it's cult classic status. Fantastic writing (which is actually funny) and voice acting, super imaginative levels, great art style and a wacky story are slightly marred by just ok gameplay, and the infamous Meat Circus last level is as bad as I had feared and it actually makes me dock a point from my score (that's how bad it is), but the game was still very worth playing, especially since Xbox's Backwards compatability looks gorgeous in 4k (except the cinematics which look awful). If they tighten up the gameplay in the sequel and don't have any more obnoxious levels like MEat Circus it's going to be another classic for sure.
Game #31 - Wolfenstein The New Order
Time: 11 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
First in the Machine Games take on the Wolfenstein series and I really like what they did with the franchise, giving it a lot more narrative (maybe a little too much as all the walk and talk segments actually detract from the experience in my opinion), fantastic gameplay and really good visuals that still hold up today (I was shocked when I found out it was originally a 360 era game), its a super tight package and really made Wolfenstein one of my favorite FPS series right now.
Game #32 - Wolfenstein The Old Blood
Time: 5 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★
A prequel to New Order that feels more like a standalone expansion that a whole new game, it takes what Machine Games made with New Order and expands it gameplay wise, while scalling back on the campaign length (not in small part because it loses a lot of the walk and talk sections that sometimes dragged the first game down). It actually does a lot of new mechanics which I liked, and leans A LOT more on the supernatural aspect of the series which I really liked (unfortunately New Colossus does not), and whileI was tempted to give it a lower score since it's so much shorter, I feel the overall package is still great and still very much worth playing.
Game #33 - Morkredd
Time: 5 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★
This was a really cool puzzle game where you control two characters at once (or play it co-op I guess) navigating various light and darkness based puzzles, with some really good visuals and level design, except the last level is one of the worst levels I've ever played in a game, so bad in fact that it's one of those cases where it actually drags down the whole experience, thus it drags down the game itself in my opinion, which is a shame.
Game #34 - Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers (Patches 5.2-5.55)
Time: 30+ hours
Platform: PC
Rating: ★★★★
Got back into Shadowbringers during the 14 day trial they had going recently (no, not because of the Blizzard fiasco...), which were a godsend as it allowed me to finish up the Main Story Quest just in time for Endwalker in November. Unfortunately, as much as I love FFXIV, the Shadowbringers post-MSQ patch content was in line with the expansion itself, which was for me, dissapointing and easily my least favorite of the expansions. None of the story beats worked for me, and even the dungeons (except one) weren't very good. The new Trial is fantastic at least, but I'm just glad to be done with Shadowbringers and I'm still very excited for Endwalker, especially since it will be my first "live" expansion.
Game #35 - Wolcen (Arise patch)
Time: 30+ hours
Platform: PC
Rating: ★★★★
I was one of the few big fans of Wolcen back on release, even if it had a TON of problems when it launched, and going back to it after it had quite a few patches and work done to it, I'm very glad to see where it's at these days. Most of the major bugs seem gone, they introduced some new mechanics and a new main game mode (I made a whole new characters and went through the story mode to get to endgame with the new stuff), and most importantly for me, changed/buffed minions a lot so that alone made it worth playing again. It still looks and feels fantastic in my opinion, one of the best in the genre in that sense, unfortunately they missed the opportunity to introduce more new skills, which I thought would be a given seeing how the skills works in the game. Maybe one day.
Game #36 - Pokemon Unite
Time: 15+ hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★
Surprisingly fun console moba, but also incredibly unbalanced and severely lacking in content, Pokemon Unite was a lot of fun for a few hours and I'll probably go back to it eventually when it has more content. But for now, one arena and only 21 heroes feels very barebones, and like I said, a lot of the heroes are borderline broken. Still, its F2P so you can probably get your "money's worth" out of it.
Game #37 - Islanders
Time: Ongoing
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★★
Tetris meets Sim City in this minimalist city builder, and while the concept is simple, the execution is fantastic and utterly addictive. The Tetris comparison became even more apt after I realized the goal of the game is not to "beat it" and more to get the highest score possible, as you basically restart from the start when you get to a point where you can't make any more progress on the islands. At first this put me off, but just as fast I shrugged it off and started the game over again, now with more knowledge of what each "piece" does and interacts with other "pieces" (or buildings if you prefer) and the whole thing clicked all over again. Just a fantastic time waster, and super cheap too.
Game #38 - Undermine
Time: 25 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★★
Easily my favorite roguelike since Hades, it checks all the boxes the genre needs to be great: fantastic "just one more run" feeling, great pixel art, snappy gameplay focused more on getting gold than combat (but still has tons of combat upgrades), some of the best meta progression in the genre, and lots of bonus stuff to do outside the main game runs (and post game), just an overall super well made package that while not doing anything new, does everything perfectly (reminds me of Enter the Gungeon where I also finished it in about 25 hours, but could have played the side stuff much more if I wanted).
Game #39 - Diablo 2 Resurrected
Time: Ongoing
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★
Great remaster of a very dated game in my opinion, but then again I never really had any nostalgia for it. Looks and runs great on Switch, and it's definitely fun but it has a lot of outdated mechanics in my opinion that often drags the experience down.
Game #40 - Astro's Playroom
Time: 3 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★
This was a very cute 3d platformer that acts basically as a demo for the new dual sense controller, and your enjoyment with it will depend how much you like (or don't like) the various features of the Playstation controller. I'm not a fan of motion controls and whatnot so a lot of it was lost on me, but all the little nostalgia details were great, it plays well enough and looks good (but nothing that couldn't be done on a PS4 mind you), and hey it's free so can't complain much.
Game #41 - Spider-Man Remastered
Time: 25 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Replay for this one, and it's still easily one of my favorite games in years, if not ever. Just a fantastic love letter to Spidey fans, the MJ stealth levels are still shit and so are the puzzle-y activies, but nothing that detracts from the overall experience.The remaster is great, especially in RT performance mode, as you get sweet 60fps Spidey with all the cool RT reflections and shit.
Game #42 - Spider-Man The Heist
Time: 3 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
The three episode DLC sort of feels like it should have been one big expansion, but it is what it is. Cool start to the story with Black Cat finally showing up for some shenanigans after being teased in the main game. Some cool new side activities and the same level of polish from the main game make this a great first DLC. My only issue (that gets worse as the DLCs continue) is that it feels very low stakes compared to the main game.
Game #43 - Spider-Man Turf Wars
Time: 3 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★
The story continues with a lot more focus on the mafia wars, and it loses me a bit here because like I said, the whole thing feels a lot less important than the main game, as it focuses on Hammerhead, not exactly the best of Spidey's villains. Cool stuff with Yuri tho.
Game #44 - Spider-Man Silver Lining
Time: 3 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
The conclusion to the DLC expansions and it picks back up again with Silver Sable returning from the main game for some fun times with Spidey. Again, Hammerhead is not my favorite, but it wraps up nicely, and all the new crimes and challenges are fun.
Game #45 - Spider-Man Miles Morales
Time: 15 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Great sequel to Spider-Man, albeit a shorter and more down to earth one, nevertheless this does everything the first game did, and amps it up a notch with new moves based on Miles's bioelectric powers, powered by the same dark magic tech those Insomniac guys are using (more on that later with Ratchet) that makes this look the way it does, with ray tracing, and still run at 60. I just wish it was a "full blown sequel" instead of a smaller project (it really feels like a smaller game in general and not just length wise, there's not many villains in it for example which bummed me out), but I guess that's what next year's game is for.
Game #46 - Returnal
Time: 50 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Wow, this would easily have been by surprise of the year if not for GotG later, but at the very least I feel really silly for mocking it at launch for being a "$70 roguelike lol". Super addictive fast paced third person shooter with fantastic visuals and rock hard difficulty, with a dash (or more) of From's Souls games sprinkled in (in spirit if anything), it got a smidge too difficult and frustrating near the end (as do most Souls-likes for me, which this isn't... but sorta-kinda is... its weird man) this really blew me away and it's probably my GOTY, either this or Ratchet. Speaking of...
Game #47 - Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart
Time: 15 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
And Insomniac proves they are the best developer at Sony at the moment, not only releasing a great Spidey small scale sequel, but a full blown next gen (current gen?) Ratchet game, probably the best Ratchet game so far. Easily the best visuals I've seen in a game (funny I really thought Demon's Souls would take that), super fun gameplay and actual fun and engaging story makes this one of the easiest recommendations I could make. Meaty campaign with a ton of variety too, great soundtrack, just a fantastic game all around that really cements Insomniac as my favorite Sony developer at the moment and I can't wait to see what they do with Spidey 2 and Wolverine.
Game #48 - Ratchet & Clank (2016)
Time: 10 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
And we keep the Ratchet train rolling by checking out the 2016 remake / reboot of the series and, with the 4k60 patch, it actually holds up really well. It definitely feels dated in some spots (especially since it was staying true to the PS2 original at the time, a problem another game later on also has in my opinion), but great visuals (as usual) and fun gameplay with all sorts of wacky weapons as you expect make this a worthwhile playthrough. It's a bit short and some level design feels dated like I said but still a great game.
Game #49 - Guardians of the Galaxy
Time: 12 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
And the surprise of the year goes to Guardians of the Galaxy, a game most of us had dismissed given the awful marketing and lead in from the not so amazing Avengers game, which goes to show we really should wait and judge games (or anything) on their own merits. And what merits it has! Great visuals, fun gameplay that makes great use of the team setting while still being a single player narrative focused game, and easily some of the best writing and dialogue in a game in ages. The campaign is great, there's lots of costumes to collect, and again, the story is actually really good, it's just a shame that it's quite buggy and janky, at least when I played it. Still, it was a blast and I hope the team gets a chance to make a sequel, which I imagine would do a lot better given the very strong word of mouth this one has. Also Mantis is the best character of 2021.
Game #50 - Demon's Souls (2020)
Time: 30 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
Let me say this off the bat, Demon's Souls is a fantastic game. It looks amazing, it plays just like you remember (if you told me From made this I would believe you) and is overall just a great "Souls" game. That being said (and the reason this Souls fanboy is only rating it 4/5 lol), I think I was ultimately a little let down. It looks amzing but at the same time a lot of the art direction is boring, it plays great but a lot of it feels dated or like a "first Souls game", which granted, it WAS, but much like the Ratchet remake earlier, this sticks a little too close to the original in some things that could have been improved. Still, it scratched the Souls itch (strangely the next game scratched it much better) and it opened up my appetite for more Souls experiences, leading us to...
Game #51 - Nioh Remastered
Time: 55 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
A replay for this one, having played it on PC back in 2017, and it's even better than I remembered. A fantastic Souls-like that honestly goes toe to toe with From's own games in my opinion, for what it lacks in level or zone design compared to the From games, it makes up in much more interesting gameplay, taking the core of the Dark Souls formula, and improving on it with every weapon having a much bigger variety of moves to use. This remaster at 4k60 also looks great and completely holds up, and the only bad thing I have to say about the game isn't even about the game itself, it's about the difficulty spike in the DLCs, something that actually made me sour on the game back in 2017 and made me drop it (long story short, its balanced around the notion that people would be much higher level from NG+ since the DLCs took months to come out, so when you play them back to back right after finishing the game... it's not fun to say the least), so this time I simply decided to not tackle the DLC and just moved on to Nioh 2, and I'm glad I did, but that is for the next entry.
Game #52 - Pokemon Shining Pearl
Time: 35 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★
So I'm not a "serious" pokemon player, I enjoy them as simple rpgs with a very addictive collection hook to them and some flashy special moves, so in that sense, I enjoyed Shining Pearl, but I enjoyed it in the same way I enjoyed Shield. I don't really play the post game content of these games, I get what I want out of them and by the time I reach the credits I'm pretty much checked out. Still, I like the chibi art style evocating the gameboy original (kinda like what Link's Awakening did), I liked the pokemon in this one more than Shield, but a frustrating last boss gauntlet really soured me on the game, and if I wasn't already inclined to do much post game, that ending section sealed the deal. Much like I felt with Pokemon Shield, its alright but I'm glad I got it cheap.
Game #53 - Nioh 2 Remastered
Time: 70 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Nioh 2 does everything Nioh 1 did but bigger and better, and with a lot of new systems that really make the first game basically obsolete. Remaster still looks great, I really like the new systems like the demon forms replacing the powered up weapon, the new burst counter is super satisfying to use, the new weapons are great and the game is much bigger than the first (a lot more than expected), with a ton of post game content too. In fact, since I notoriously gave up (on my first playthrough years ago) and straight up skipped the first game's dlc this time around because of the silly difficulty spike, I'm happy to say the way they handle it in the sequel is much better, as you can do all the dlcs properly scaled for the level you are when you finish the game, so I'm actually going to do them this time around.
Game #54 - Nioh 2 The Tengu's Disciple
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Very impressive first DLC, with a couple of fantastic main missions (fuck they are long) and some good sub missions too to round up the package (in new locations too which is always nice even if theya re shorter). Bosses were very good also, especially the last one, he is a doozy. It's not very long, but it's basically more of the best parts of Nioh 2, so can't complain.
Game #55 - Nioh 2 Darkness in the Capital
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
Another great DLC, with some really good bosses, just the main mission zones are a tad weaker compared to teh first DLC. Still a great addition tho.
Game #56 - The First Samurai
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Final Nioh 2 DLC, and what a great way to go out, with some of the best bosses in the game, aand a couple of fantastic maain missions, one of them is probably the best level in the game. Just fantastic all around, all of the DLCs for the game really are some of the best DLC I've ever seen.
Game #57 - Ruiner
Time: 5 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★
Wow why did I wait so long to play this. Super stylish top down shooter, fantastic art design, cool cyberpunk world, great gameplay, doesn't overstay it's welcome, and albeit it's a bit too short with "only" three actual levels (the levels / zones are huge to be fair), like I said it doesn't overstay it's welcome and I loved it in the end. Props to the Switch port too, it looks and runs great, always nice to see. Man, Devolver really knows how to pick them.
Game #58 - Gleamlight
Time: 2 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★
Oh what could have been. What starts of as a very simple platform with some really good (albeit very flash-game looking) art develops into a neat little platformer as you traverse the various short levels and kill a plethora of bosses, getting new powers from each of them, adding a lot of mobility to the game. It's very short and the main gimmick is one that I unfortunately can't be arsed to engage with, as to get the real ending you need to replay the game in NG+, but without killing any enemy, so what could have been a cool, Nier style replay of the game for different stuff thing, ends up horribly frustrating as you both need to avoid dying from all the enemies, and especially need to avoid killing any of them, and since you need to hit various switches with your sword to progress, you end up hitting some enemy by mistake (as I did when I tried NG+ once) and have to restart the whole thing, and nobody got time for that shit. It's a shame really, if it was just "you have to play NG+ now with added switches and shit" it would be completely fine and I would do it, but not like this. I didn't hate it like the steam reviews seem to, but overall I can't really recommend it either, not even for the $2 or whatever I spent on it.
Game #59 - Kena Bridge of Spirits
Time: 15 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
I knew I was going to like this, just didn't expect to like it so much, as it was easily one of my favorite games of the year. Gorgeous to look at (this was made by a 15 man team???), gameplay is solid with some very obvious Souls-games inspiration (which is funny given the look of the game), great soundtrack and fantastic level and mechanics design make this one of those rare full packages. It can get pretty hard, again clearly leaning on the Souls inspiration (especially some of the bosses) which might be a turn off for people expecting something more like Jak or Ratchet, but it never got TOO crazy in my opinion, and if you explore a lot and get all the collectables, it actually improves your character's combat and survivability a lot which I loved, made it feel like exploring was meaningful. I could go on and on gushing about the game but yeah, fantastic indie title that is well worth the price.
Game #60 - Archvale
Time: 12 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★★
Well this was a very welcome surprise, when I first looked at screenshots I assumed it was another dual stick shooter roguelike in a sea of others, but it turns out, it's not a roguelike at all, but a very finely crafted zelda-style adventure, that just happens to be a dual stick shooter (or dual stick brawler if you play melee I guess). Great pixel art, tons of weapons, lots of upgrades, crafting, tons of locations and a nice campaign length, just one of those games that does what it sets out to do perfectly in my opinion, easily one of my favorites of the year.
Game #61 - Horizon Zero Dawn
Time: 48 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Replay to be ready for Forbidden West, and I still love it. Just a fantastic world to play around in, probably the best enemies in the last generation (how can you not love robot animals come on!), and playing in 4k60 with HDR is great. Aloy is a lot more sarcastic than I remembered too which I love. Easily one of my favorite games in years and this replay just cemented that. Excited to play Frozen Wilds for the first time, I missed it the first time around.
Game #62 - Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds
Time: 14 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
This was a great DLC if you are looking for more (and harder) Horizon content, but after almost 50 hours of Zero Dawn, I was pretty burned out and I think that hurt my enjoyment of it. Also, it all looks very same-y (I hope you like snow), and I feel Horizon is best when its in lush environments (which bodes well for the sequel). Still, the new machines are viscious, the story is fine, especially some of the sidequests, and theres all sorts of content and new gear to get.
Game #63 - Morbid The Seven Acolytes
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★
Very split on this one, as for everything it does well, it does something else badly. Let's start with the good stuff: the art style is absolutely fantastic, and it completely carries the game. The creature design is grossly delightful, the zones look good as well, as do the weapons, in general the pixel art itself is very good. The animations on the other hand, are super janky (like I said, for every good, there's something bad to counter it) and the whole thing looks really grimy in motion. Gameplay is ok, the weapons feel powerful and I liked the blessing system, but at the same time it's very easy to cheese the 2d top down view the game has going for it, and many times you can swing your weapons from angles the enemies can't get you or just move into it (not that I'm saying the game is easy, it's hard enough). There's some sidequests to complete, and lot's of bosses, and in general I enjoyed my time with it, but the whole thing felt super janky especially when you compare it to other similar and much smoother games. A solid 3/5 but that's about it, for ultra-fans of the genre only.
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